By John Corrado
Illumination’s Minions & Monsters, this summer’s spinoff of the Despicable Me and Minions franchises, is now available on physical media, including 4K Ultra HD.
This prequel is set during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and focuses on the Minions inadvertently becoming silent film stars. The main Minion this time around is James, an aspiring filmmaker who is embarking on making a monster movie with his buddies and fellow outsiders Henry and Ed.
We can tell that director Pierre Coffin, one of the co-creators of the Minions, put a lot of heart and soul into this one. I mainly enjoyed Minions & Monsters as a sly tribute to Old Hollywood, with some great gags involving these little yellow guys who speak gibberish paying homage to classic films (you can read my full review right here). It’s a lot of fun for those of all ages, and the 4K disc does justice to the bright colours and vibrant animation.
Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)
Bonus Features (4K Ultra HD):
The 4K disc includes several bonus featurettes and some activity tutorials for the kids. A regular Blu-ray is also included in the package, which ships with an embossed slipcover.
• Minions Take on Hollywood (10 minutes, 49 seconds): Director Pierre Coffin and the animation team discuss paying homage to classic movies, designing the new characters, and lighting the black-and-white sequences.
• Casting Minions & Monsters (11 minutes, 42 seconds): Takes us through the new characters in the film and the voice actors behind them, from Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz and Jeff Bridges, to Trey Parker, Jesse Eisenberg and Zoey Deutch.
• Hollywood Sound (4 minutes, 27 seconds): A look at composer John Powell’s delightful musical score for the film.
• How to Make Your Own Irene Blob Monster Slime (3 minutes, 29 seconds): Influencer Snoopslimes shows us how to make homemade orange slime with eyes in this throwaway tutorial turned ASMR video.
• Movie-Making Minions Style (5 minutes, 58 seconds): A step-by-step instruction video teaching kids how to make a simple animated flipbook.
• How to Draw (Play All – 12 minutes, 34 seconds): Head of Story Nima Azarba teaches us how to draw various Minion, monster and human characters.
- James (1 minute, 25 seconds)
- Henry (1 minute, 13 seconds)
- Ed (1 minute, 15 seconds)
- Max (1 minute, 39 seconds)
- Dort (1 minute, 13 seconds)
- Goomi (1 minute, 15 seconds)
- Irene (1 minute, 19 seconds)
- Howard (1 minute, 42 seconds)
- Phillips (1 minute, 42 seconds)
The Joy of Movies 